Artist—Colette Trudeau
Song—Freeze
Album—Colette Trudeau
Label—Independent

DEAR  AUNTIE COLUMN

Indigenous communities in the United States have the highest rate of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome [SIDS], according to information collected by the National Institute of Health in the U.S.

And in Canada the situation is the same.

The data, which was presented at the 4th International Meeting on Indigenous Child Health this March in Vancouver, states that in the US SIDS is two to four times more likely to occur in American Indian and Alaska Native [AI/AN] communities.

A new approach to crime prevention is expected to have a positive impact in the city that is home to the second largest urban Aboriginal population in the country.

“We’re learning how to better engage the Aboriginal community in crime prevention in a cultural context, and that’s what’s important about this in terms of the initiative,” said Kate Gunn, executive director for the REACH Council for Safe Communities. “This is hugely significant. No where else in Canada is there an initiative quite like this.”

When we hear the name Jane Goodall, most of us think of a woman who studied chimpanzees for 45 years.
First Nations, Inuit and Métis youth can say, however, that the name stands for much more.

Jane Goodall started the Roots & Shoots program for youth in 1991 after being approached by a group of 16 teenagers in Tanzania eager to discuss with her a range of problems that caused them deep concern in their communities.

ASSEMBLY OF FIRST NATIONS (AFN)

Aboriginal artist Daphne Odjig of Wikwemikong Unceded Indian Reserve on Manitoulin Island, Ont. now has the honor of having her paintings published as a series of postage stamps.

Canada Post announced Feb. 21 the unveiling of three stamps, each showing a different painting created by the artist.

The three paintings displayed on the stamps are entitled Spiritual Renewal (1984), Pow-wow Dancer (1978), and Pow-wow (1969).

The province of Alberta, through its Sustainable Resource department, released a draft plan on April 5 that will guide development in the Lower Athabasca region of northern Alberta.

First Nations and environmental organizations say, however, that despite their best efforts to provide input into the plan, their voices have gone unheard.

Melody Lepine, director of government and industry relations with the Mikisew Cree First Nation, said her northern band is concerned about the lack of protection for woodland caribou found in the Lower Athabasca Regional draft plan (LARP).

First Nations leaders will start taking action of their own, if the federal and provincial governments don’t do something about the flooding that plagues First Nations communities each year.

At about 3:30 on Saturday, March 26 I was released from prison.  Really. It was great to smell the fresh air again, to see the horizon and not just those oppressive four walls. More importantly, it was great to know I was once again the master of my own destiny. True, some of my family had always suspected that someday I would end up in prison.  How right they were  My crime… I am a writer. God, I had missed freedom.